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Jul 26, 2012

Firefly Music Festival 2012

Last weekend was one of those weekends where you have so much fun that you can't possible put down everything into words and have it sound as fun to those reading the words, but I will try anyways.

This past weekend was the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, DE. My friend Jenny, her cousin Jacob and myself decided to make the journey and attend the inaugural festival. We knew it had an amazing lineup, we knew we had a plot of ground for a tent, and we knew that we needed a buddy system. Other then that, we went in with not a whole lot of expectations. There were rumors floating online, but since it was the first festival no one really knew what security would be like, how strictly the acts would adhere to the schedule, or if there would be decent priced food, etc.

Friday 10:00am -We loaded up the car (quickly and unorganized) and headed out of the rainy dreary Manhattan towards Delaware!

We made a pit stop in Jersey to buy some forgotten goods (aka a sweatshirt) and repack the car since there was no rain when we stopped.

Heading over the Delaware Memorial Bridge!

Our trusty passenger, preparing for the weekend.

Dover Downs Stadium. We may have missed the exit and had to ask for directions.

Wristbands secured for the weekend. It's like we're superheros.

4:30ish - Tent up, car somewhat organized, rain still falling, ready to head into the festival.

The entrance on Friday.

We stopped by the John Legend set.

We headed to Walk The Moon. They were fabulous! If and when they come through New York I definitely want to see them again.

The would be the Silversun Pickups (aka Jenny's favorite band EVAH) She may have made her way to the center of the crowd in the first few rows while Jacob and I wen tin search of food.

Friday night's headliner was Jack White. Apparantly, none of us took pictures of him. It was sorta rainy during his set and his sound messed up in the first few minutes, but after a brief temper tantrum that involved sitting down and throwing his boot iff, his show was good. This is officially the second time I've seen Jack White live and he has thrown a temper tantrum both times. Maybe it's his thing.

Then we headed back to camp. It was about a 25 minute walk from the festival to the campsite and I expected the party to be much louder and crazier then it was. People were pretty tame Friday night, but it was rainy and freezing!

Saturday begin with an epic band and ended on a super high note:

Imagine Dragons - I have a lot of pics of them because they were who I was most excited about and they delivered. I love that they are so new to the scene and they were super humble about their music and support from fans. I want to see these guys again too!

Just hanging out between sets. Jake and I were twins with our striped shirts. #FFFF

This guy may have had too much fun, too early.

This is Trampled By Turtles, I liked them a lot and they have a folky sound to them. Saturday also brought Awolnation, Cake, and Grouplove, The Cold War Kids.

Saturday night's headliner was The Killers. Going into the festival I didn't think I was a big fan of theirs, but I soon learned that I knew everyone of their songs, but just didn't realize it was them. The show was phenomenal. They had fireworks, confetti, an amazing set list, and good showmanship. I was really impressed with them and they didn't throw temper tantrums.

On Sunday, we started the day with showers (we had to pay $5), a trip to McDonald's (we walked hoping to secure an outlet to charge our phones). The day had such a good line-up that we forgot to take some pictures. This is Death Cab for Cutie.

We also saw: Penguin Police, Girl Talk, The Head and The Heart, Reptar, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Tinie Tempah. A few times we split up to watch conflicting sets, but the schedule was pretty great the whole weekend.

Sunday's headliner was The Black Keys. Considering it's only 2 guys, they were also pretty awesome. I liked them more than Jack White, but not quite as much as The Killers.

They had a disco ball drop from the stage ceiling and when the lights shined on it, it appeared to be FIREFLIES! Clever event planners!

After The Black Keys, we made our final trek to camp with 30,000 of our closest friends.

Monday morning involved lots of cleaning up, tearing down, and repacking. This is my least favorite part of camping. During this part of our morning it was mentioned that we should make our way to a fast food joint that we don;t have in the city. Sonic and Chick-fil-a were mentioned.

Success! As we were driving we hit an intersection with both a Sonic and a Chick-fil-a, so we hit both up because when on a road trip, eat like it.

Overall, the weekend was awesome. We had fun, listened to some amazing music, and I experienced a music festival which I never imagined myself doing. I liked camping (we will camp again next year, even if Jenny thinks she is getting a hotel), I would totally pay to take a shower again, and I thought you could tell that the organizers had spent a lot of time planning out the festival. The maps and schedules were great, the food was decently priced (for us New Yorkers anyways), the cooling down stations were pumping cold air, and the music was fantastic. I am excited to see the line-up for next year because I would like to go again. If for some reason that doesn't happen, I can always say that I went to the very first Firefly Music Festival.

Not everything was birds and rainbows...later this week I'll post about the things that I didn't like so much.